the worship and service event
run by Redeemer University
College students. TrueCity
co-ordinates and publicizes
the events, enabling a few
hundred youth to connect
and serve with local churches
and other mission organizations. TrueCity built on an
already existing desire to help
refugees and facilitated the
creation of Micah House, a
home for refugee claimants.
It “flowed from the energy of
churches coming together to
confront the neglect of refugees,” says Witt.

One strategy that hasemerged most consistentlyand effectively for TrueCity,Witt says, is the sharing ofstories. Churches keep upwith each other’s activities. ABaptist church started a foodpantry, for example, becausethey saw and learned fromanother one in action.

TrueCity even has an annual conference for the same
reason families have reunions.
They hear each other’s stories
and see what other TrueCity
churches are doing. This is
the actual face-to-face networking, to celebrate, worship and learn – a big-group
recharging of batteries for the
good of Hamilton.

A You Tube channel offers areel of short videos tellingstories, examples that otherscan learn from. TrueCity’s vi-sion is interwoven throughevery story shared. As DwayneCline, pastor of HughsonStreet Baptist Church, says inone clip, “The city expects ourchurches to all be individualunits…. As we co-operatetogether, they will see usworking together at unpreced-ented levels, and it will raiseeyebrows.”Witt sees areas whereTrueCity can continue to de-velop, including the continuedfostering of community in un-expected places – not only be-tween churches of differentdenominations, but in troubledneighbourhoods as well. Aneven higher priority, Witt says,is to live out “what it means toshare the gospel in response toquestions that collaboratingchurches raise. We need toshare answers that Hamilton’speople need to hear.”Could something likeTrueCity work in other cities?

“Yes, as long as you don’t
call it TrueCity,” Witt laughs.
“It has to be about your town,
your city.” Many of those who
have visited from outside the
immediate area to attend the
annual conference have found
it, in his words, “more relevant
because it’s particular” to
Hamilton – the deliberately
narrow geographical focus on
Hamilton’s unique needs is
part of what gives the movement such impact.

What Paul says of individual roles and gifts in the Body
of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12
can also apply to whole
churches, says Witt. One of
the most essential things a
movement like TrueCity does
is help congregations “to
recognize that each church
has a gift to share with the
Body of Christ.” /FT

What’s it like for a new church
to grow up within TrueCity’s
network? As the founding
pastor of Eucharist, a church
that began in September 2010,
Kevin Makins believes TrueCity
helps to shape the identity of
churches throughout Hamilton,
including his own.

“TrueCity gives a strongsense of identity, what itmeans to be part of the church,not just a church, in Hamilton,”he says. “There’s a sharedcalling of what to be and do. Ifthere’s something that anotherTrueCity church is doing well,the question isn’t just, ‘How dowe join in?’ Since the peoplethere are our friends, it’s morelike, ‘How do we join with themin this ministry?’”Makins credits TrueCitywith helping to cultivatean interchurch culture thatcelebrates congregationaldiversity, connecting people toEucharist who might not havefound a good fit elsewhere.That culture, he notes, can alsoease pastoral transitions. Whena pastoral couple stepped downfrom leadership at anotherTrueCity church, they werewelcomed into Eucharist asgifted and experienced mentors.

Growing a church on TrueCity soilTrueCity leaders offer advice on how to form a movement of churches

IT Was THEcomINgTogETHER oFsTRugglINgcHuRcHEs, No TsuccEssFuloNEs.

FEATURE

• Determine shared theological
values all interested churches
can commit to, and establish
some shared practices
around those commitments
to get started.

• Be clear about what youunite around. Start with aneutral facilitator.

• Go beyond pastors to be the
leaders of the movement.

Locate people who are alreadyplanted in the area who can begiven the time and resourcesto work on the movement.

• Play with pulpit exchanges.
Interested churches exchange
preachers for one Sunday, so
that each congregation can
hear a message from a new
voice.

• Begin and maintain a practice
Gather for meetings, but also for
building relationships between
pastors and church leaders.

• Seek partnerships between
churches, but also among
parachurch ministries.